Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Jardine Matheson's 2019 annual results presentation. As you know, in light of the current situation with the coronavirus, we've taken the decision to make this presentation by way of webcast rather than holding our usual face-to-face meeting. You should be able to see the slide deck on your screen at the same time as the presentation, and you can also download it if you wish. You will have an opportunity, as normal, to ask questions. If you do wish to ask a question, please press the Submit Question button, which should be visible on your screen, and we will collate questions for answering at the end. In today's presentation, I will start by providing you with an overview of our performance in 2019 and a summary of some of the key strategic developments which have taken place during the year.
I'll then hand over to John Witt, our Group Finance Director, who will go into the detail of this year's results, including the performance of individual group companies. I will then share my view on the outlook for 2020, after which we will be happy to take your questions. I wanted to start by saying a few words about Hong Kong. The social unrest in the second half of the year has had a significant impact on the local economy and a number of our businesses. This has been made worse by the COVID-19 outbreak, which is creating challenges both in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
In this uncertain and anxious time, we are very grateful for the dedication and resilience our people are showing in dealing with these substantial challenges, and we remain confident in the positive long-term outlook for the region and in Hong Kong's future as a leading financial and commercial center. Now, with the spread of COVID-19 across the world, we continue to monitor the outbreak closely. Our priority is always the well-being of our people and our customers, and we will do all we can to ensure their safety and support them through this difficult and anxious time. Before I move on to talk about the group's performance in the last year, I'd also like to mention the announcement we released yesterday evening in relation to the senior management changes.
With effect from the 15th of June 2020, the roles of Executive Chairman and Managing Director, which I've held on a combined basis since December 2018, will revert to being separate. I will remain as Executive Chairman, and John Witt, our Group Finance Director, will become Managing Director. Graham Baker, currently CFO of Smith & Nephew in the U.K., will replace John as Group Finance Director and join the board of Jardine Matheson Holdings. We're confident that these changes will strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of the group's leadership as we respond to the challenges and opportunities we face in positioning Jardine's for the long-term success. Now, for the results.
Jardine Matheson delivered a resilient performance despite having to navigate a range of challenges, including the U.S.-China trade war, negative consumer sentiment in a number of markets, generally lower commodity prices, and the social unrest I mentioned earlier in Hong Kong. The group's performance was resilient in difficult conditions, and there was a record year for Hongk ong Land and solid results from Jardine Pacific and Astra. Difficult market conditions in Hong Kong impacted Dairy Farm's financial performance in 2019, but its ongoing transformation program is beginning to deliver positive operational results. COVID-19 has already had a significant impact on the performance of our businesses in Greater China at the start of 2020. The group's results for the remainder of the year will depend on the duration, geographic extent, and the impact of the outbreak and the measures taken to control it.
We remain confident, however, that the group's strong balance sheet, liquidity, and clear strategic priorities will position Jardine Matheson well for strong long-term growth. Turning now to look in a little more detail at our results for 2019, I wanted firstly to remind you of the structure of the group. There have been no material changes since our 2019 half-year results presentation. In addition to the ownership interest shown here, Jardine Strategic holds a 58% interest in its parent, Jardine Matheson. Looking now at the financial highlights for the year, revenue from subsidiaries was $41 billion, 4% lower than last year. Underlying profit was also down 4% at $1.6 billion. Jardine Matheson has a strong presence in two of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world, Greater China and Southeast Asia. Greater China provides the larger contribution to the group, totaling 58% of the group's underlying net profits last year.
Hong Kong remains our core market, contributing 33% of our 2019 profits. The Chinese mainland is also now a very key market for Jardine's, delivering 21% of the total group profit last year. Our Southeast Asia business contributed to the overall group profit with 42%. Non-trading items for the year netted to $1.25 billion. This included the $1.5 billion net gained from the disposal of the group's interest in JLT. John will cover the principal non-trading items in more detail later. The board is recommending an unchanged final dividend of $1.28 per share, which will result in a total dividend for the year of $1.72 per share, marginally up from last year. I'll now spend a few minutes highlighting key strategic developments over the past year.
One of the group's key strategic objectives is to invest for long-term growth in its core markets of Greater China and Southeast Asia. A good example of the group's execution of this strategy is Hongk ong Land's recently announced acquisition of a large strategic site in a prime location in Shanghai's West Bund. This acquisition will substantially expand Hongk ong Land's portfolio and provide it with a significant presence in a predominant commercial hub of the Chinese mainland, complementing its large-scale presence in our other key financial centers, Hong Kong and Singapore. The development will have a mix of office, retail, residential, and leisure space, placed to Hongk ong Land's great experience and expertise in developing and managing complex mixed-use projects. We expect the project, which will not be completed in 2027, to be a material driver of future growth in what is a core market.
Our financial and operational strength continues to be supported by our investment strategy and approach to capital allocation. We keep our portfolio of businesses under review, and where appropriate, we take action to ensure the group's activities remain aligned with strategic priorities. In the past year, such action has included the disposal of the group's interest in JLT to Marsh McLennan, which completed in April 2019. The receipt of $21 billion net proceeds has increased the financial strength of the group and enhanced our ability to take advantage of opportunities in our core markets across Asia. We also disposed of our technology business, JOS, at the end of the year, and the conditional agreement by Astra to sell its interest in Permata Bank received shareholder approval yesterday. The group's aim is to be a partner of choice, developing strong relationships with businesses and contributing to their growth over time.
We do this by supporting them in developing their strategy, strengthening their governance, and recruiting key people. We are also able to offer our partners access to our wide network of relationships across the region and help them leverage our scale. We see it as essential for there to be strong collaboration between Jardine Matheson and its partners in order to share learnings, which we view as very much a two-way street. Our role as a supportive partner was exemplified in 2019 by the strengthening of our relationships with Yonghui Superstores, Dairy Farm's 20% held associate, which continues to grow rapidly and is now a leading retailer on the Chinese mainland with over 1,300 stores. While Jardine Cycle & Carriage increased its stake in THACO in Vietnam, in recent years, THACO has diversified its business into property and agriculture, and these are expected to grow in importance going forward.
During the year, Astra made a further $100 million investment in Gojek, Indonesia's leading multi-platform technology group. This demonstrates the group's strategic focus on creating partnerships with companies in the new economy with which its existing businesses can work to create additional value. These last two examples demonstrate the group's focus on Southeast Asia, a rapidly developing region whose GDP is projected to double to $6 trillion by 2030, growing at an annual rate of 6%, as well as on investing in market-leading businesses that support the region's urbanization and emerging middle-income consumers. We set as strategic priorities modernizing our core business operations and enhancing the group's performance. I'll talk later about how we are driving innovation and digitalization across our businesses in order to help achieve these objectives.
In addition, we anticipate that a number of our businesses will face increasing changes both in technology and consumer behaviors set against an increasingly complex environment. In this context, in order to strengthen our automotive businesses and ensure that they're resilient and able to address anticipated long-term disruptions in the sector, we formed Jardine's International Motors, or JIM as we call it, during the year. JIM will provide central management and oversight to our motor businesses and enable us to harness expertise and talent effectively, increasing customer focus and creating economies of scale across our automotive interests in a coordinated way. Mandarin Oriental is a high-profile global brand, which is a key asset for the group. It is pleasing to see the continued momentum in expansion of the business, which opened four new hotels in 2019, the most in a single year.
There has also been a further increase in the group's pipeline of future properties, with seven management contracts signed and announced in the year and a total of 20 new projects scheduled to open in the next five years. The closure of Excelsior in Hong Kong in March 2019 was the end of an era for an iconic property, which will be remembered with fondness by many Hong Kongers. Its redevelopment as a mixed-use office and retail project again reflects the group's strategy on investing for the long-term growth. On that note, I will pause and pass you to John, who will take us through a closer look at our 2019 results.
Thank you, Ben, and good morning, everyone. As always, I will focus on underlying profit attributable to shareholders, which the group uses as its key earnings performance measure.
Underlying profit excludes what we call non-trading items, which are specifically defined by an accounting policy in our accounts. By focusing on underlying profit, the intention is to provide a clearer understanding of the ongoing business performance of the group. The group has applied IFRS 16 leases for the first time for this financial year, and the prior year results have been restated. As a result of this restatement, the group's underlying profit for 2018 was reduced by 3%. This first slide shows the underlying profit contribution of our main businesses. Let me first give you a general update on each before going into their financial performance in more detail. Jardine Pacific delivered a satisfactory performance, with strong performances by JEC and Gammon, offset by weaker performances by Jardine Restaurants and Hactl. Jardine Motors saw good growth in underlying profit, driven by a higher contribution from Zhongsheng .
However, while the business has benefited from higher new car sales and steady margins in Zung Fu, China, the underlying trading performance of the Motors business in Hong Kong and in the U.K. was impacted by difficult market conditions. There was a solid performance from Hongk ong Land, which achieved a further year of record underlying profits, reflecting steady earnings in investment properties and a stable performance from development properties, with a higher contribution from the Chinese mainland, offset by lower profits in Southeast Asia. Dairy Farm's underlying profit was lower than the prior year due to the impact of the social unrest in Hong Kong, with Mannings and Maxim's most affected. Mandarin Oriental saw profits significantly decrease as a result of the closure of the Excelsior, the social unrest in Hong Kong, and the major renovation of its Bangkok hotel.
Jardine Cycle & Carriage profit was lower than last year as a result of a decrease in the contribution from its non-Astra businesses. Astra delivered a resilient performance in 2019 in the face of relatively weak domestic consumption and low commodity prices, with strong contributions from its financial services businesses and its newly acquired gold mining operations, offset by weaker performances from heavy equipment, coal mining, and agribusiness. No profit was recognized in respect to the group's interest in JLT from the beginning of 2019 to the date of completion. In 2018, JLT's contribution was $77 million. The absence of a contribution in 2019, however, was mitigated by interest income from the sale of proceeds, which was recorded in the corporate and other interest line. Turning to non-trading items, there were net gains of $1.25 billion in 2019, compared with $67 million in the previous year.
Principal items were a $1.5 billion gain on the sale of the group's interest in JLT, partly offset by a $337 million net decrease in the fair value of investment properties, primarily in Hongk ong Land. The group's balance sheet remains strong, with shareholder funds up 16% to $30.4 billion at 31st December 2019. NAV per share has risen to $81.90. Jardine Matheson's consolidated net borrowings, excluding financial services companies, was $4.8 billion at the end of 2019, representing gearing of 7%. This compares to net borrowings of $5.9 billion and gearing of 10% at the end of 2018. The decrease in net borrowings was due to the receipt of the JLT proceeds, partly offset by investments in the year by the group businesses. The group's financial services companies, comprising primarily the consumer finance businesses within Astra, had net borrowings of $3.3 billion at the end of 2019.
Looking more closely at net borrowings, excluding financial services, this next slide shows a breakdown of the group's net borrowings by business unit. Jardine Pacific and Jardine Motors saw a slight decrease in net cash to $13 million in 2019. Hongk ong Land's net borrowings was $3.6 billion at the end of 2019, largely unchanged from the end of 2018. Strong operating cash flow from wholly owned development properties projects, principally in the Chinese mainland, with proceeds from sales and lower expenditure, was offset by the funding of the group's new joint venture projects. Dairy Farm's net borrowings increased to $821 million at the end of 2019 to finance working capital due to the timing of payments to suppliers as a result of an earlier Chinese New Year, combined with continuing investments in stores, including new IKEA stores in Taiwan and Indonesia.
Moving to Jardine Cycle & Carriage, consolidated net borrowings, including Astra and its direct motor interests, increased to $3 billion from $2.2 billion in 2018. This was due to higher net borrowings in Astra of $0.6 billion and in Jardine Cycle & Carriage itself of $0.2 billion. Finally, the Jardine Matheson and Jardine Strategic corporate entities were debt-free, with an increase in the combined cash available for investment at the end of 2019 to some $3 billion, primarily as a result of the receipt of the JLT proceeds. The group continues to benefit from strong operating cash flows, ample committed facilities, and access to both the bank and debt capital markets. This gives an excellent platform to keep investing in our own companies and new business ventures. It also enables us to address challenges such as COVID-19 with resilience and positions us well for long-term growth.
Turning to our consolidated cash flow, cash flow from operating activities in the year was $4.9 billion, compared with $5.2 billion in 2018. Under investing activities, capital expenditure by our subsidiaries amounted to some $4.3 billion, down from $5.9 billion last year. This slide summarizes all the capital expenditure and investments made in 2019 across the group, including 100% of investments made by associates and joint ventures. Let me first cover the $4.3 billion capital expenditure by our subsidiaries. Under investments in associates and joint ventures, the group deployed $2.1 billion, with the main items being Hongk ong Land's investment of $1.6 billion in development projects, primarily in the Chinese mainland, in Nanjing, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Shanghai. Astra's investments in and capital injections into associates and joint ventures of $285 million, which included some $210 million related to investments in toll road concessions.
Jardine Cycle & Carriage's purchase of an additional 1.3% interest in THACO for $168 million. Included in the $409 million purchase of other investments was $100 million for Astra's additional investment in Gojek, as well as some $300 million of securities purchased by Astra's general insurance business. The $224 million under purchase of intangible assets included $86 million for mining exploration costs and $40 million for the acquisition of contracts by Astra's general insurance business. Of the $1.2 billion purchase of tangible assets, $800 million was spent in Astra businesses, primarily on the acquisition of heavy equipment and machinery in PAMA, on outlet development and operational machinery and equipment in the automotive businesses, as well as on improvements to plantation infrastructure in Astra's agribusiness. Dairy Farm spent $233 million on new store expansion and refurbishment of its existing stores, a similar level to 2018.
$54 million was spent in Jardine Motors on dealership developments, and there was an expenditure of $42 million in Mandarin Oriental on the renovation of its hotel properties. In additions to investment properties, $171 million primarily relates to additions to investment properties in Hongk ong Land. In addition to the $4.3 billion on investments by our group subsidiaries, $277 million was spent to increase our interest in subsidiaries, primarily the acquisition of additional shares in Jardine Strategic. Trading properties CapEx of $1.1 billion was expenditure for properties for sale. These were predominantly the development projects of Hongk ong Land, which in the cash flow statement appear under operating activities rather than investing activities. Major CapEx of associates and joint ventures, which are outside of the group's consolidated cash flows, totaled $4.8 billion, in line with the prior year.
This CapEx included $1.8 billion by Hongk ong Land's joint ventures on development projects, $900 million by THACO, including investments in its agribusiness, and $1.4 billion by Dairy Farm's joint ventures and associates, including the acquisition by 50% owned Maxim's of the Starbucks Thailand franchise through a 64% owned joint venture in May 2019. Turning back to the consolidated cash flow, in 2019, the group had cash inflows of $3.6 billion from disposals, advances, and repayments from associates and joint ventures, the principal component of which was $2.1 billion net proceeds from the JLT disposal, as well as $900 million in advances and repayments from associates and joint ventures in Hongk ong Land. A new item under financing activities is the $1 billion of principal elements of lease payments. Under the previous accounting standard, both the principal and interest element of lease payments were presented under operating activities.
Overall, the group's net cash increased by $2.1 billion, with a 2019 year-end cash position of $7.2 billion. Let me now cover the 2019 performance of each of our principal businesses in more detail, starting with Jardine Matheson's directly owned businesses. Within Jardine Pacific, Jardine Schindler provided a slightly lower contribution due to a shortfall in new installation sales as a result of project delays and challenging market conditions in several countries in Southeast Asia. JEC delivered strong profit growth, primarily from its Hong Kong engineering and data center services business, and in part as a result of its earlier investment in modernizing its core business and increasing revenue via business efficiency initiatives. These included shifting product mix toward higher- margin businesses and enhancing procurement efficiency and labor productivity.
Gammon saw good profit growth, mainly due to the timing of project completions, as well as better margins and a higher level of realized claims. It has a strong order book of some $4.3 billion, with a good pipeline of projects for 2020, although the COVID-19 outbreak has already resulted in a slowdown in project approvals in both the public and private sectors. Jardine Restaurants saw profits impacted by difficult trading conditions in Hong Kong and the upfront costs of its investment in process re-engineering projects in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Taiwan, there was a strong performance from both KFC and Pizza Hut. 2019 was also a record year for new store openings driven by Pizza Hut and KFC in Taiwan and Vietnam, with a total of 78 net new store openings in the year, and there is a strong expansion plan for the years ahead.
Under transport services, Hactl performance was 7% down against last year, as a reduction in cargo throughput tonnage was partially offset by cost rationalization efforts. Now moving to Jardine Motors. The business saw higher underlying net profit of $196 million due to a strong contribution from the investment in Chongqing, which saw increased sales and stable margins in the first half of 2019, and from which Jardine's received the benefit of a full 12-month contribution compared with 8 months in 2018. Zung Fu in the Chinese mainland recorded a stable performance with higher new car sales and steady margins, but the underlying performance of the motors business was impacted by weak market sentiment in Hong Kong and a difficult operating environment in the United Kingdom, together with losses on dealership disposals. That completes my review of the businesses held directly by Jardine Matheson.
Turning now to Jardine Strategic, underlying profit was $1.7 billion, 3% lower than 2018. The non-trading items were principally Jardine Strategic's $874 million share of the JLT gain on disposal, offsetting by the $447 million net decrease in the fair value of investment properties, primarily in Hongk ong Land. Jardine Strategic's profit attributable to shareholders was $2.2 billion in 2019, compared with $1.8 billion in 2018. Underlying earnings per share were $2.98, a decrease of 2% against the prior year, partially supported by share buybacks carried out during the year. The board is recommending a final dividend of $0.25 per share for 2019, providing a total dividend of $0.355 per share, an increase of 4% over 2018. The net asset value per share shown for Jardine Strategic at 31st December 2019 was down 15% at $57.98 per share.
This is calculated by reference to the market value of the underlying investments held by Jardine Strategic. Moving on to the listed companies under Jardine Strategic. Hongko ng Land achieved a further year of underlying profit growth, with a 4% increase up to $1.076 billion. The group's investment properties business produced stable profits, while development properties benefited from a higher contribution from its Chinese mainland development properties business, partially offset by lower contributions from Southeast Asia due to the timing of the projects there. In Hong Kong, office leasing activities in Central were slower in 2019 compared to last year as a result of the uncertainties caused by the China-U.S. trade negotiations and the social unrest in Hong Kong.
The performance of the group's central office portfolio, however, continued to be resilient, and rental reversions remained positive, with average office rents increasing during the year and the weighted average lease expiry increasing to 4.7 years at the end of December 2019, compared with 4 years at the end of 2018. The value of the Hong Kong investment properties portfolio decreased by 2% in the year due to slightly lower open market rents. There was a slightly higher vacancy in the group's Singapore office portfolio, but rental reversions too were positive, and average rents increased in the year. The central retail portfolio remained fully occupied and retains its reputation as Hong Kong's premier shopping destination. Average retail rents, however, decreased in the year due to temporary rent relief as a result of the social unrest.
As Ben mentioned, in February 2020, Hong Kong Land announced its acquisition of the large site on the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The project has a developable area of 1.1 million sq m and will be developed in multiple phases through to 2027. 2019 was a solid year for Hongk ong Land's development properties. In the Chinese mainland, sentiment in the group's core market remained broadly stable. Higher sales completions led to an increase in profit contribution, while the group's attributable interest in contracted sales was 18% higher than 2018 due to a change in sales location mix. In Singapore, profits recognized in 2019 were lower than the prior year, while pre-sales of projects under construction were within expectation. The performance of the group's joint venture projects in the rest of Southeast Asia was also within expectations.
At Dairy Farm, there were encouraging signs of progress from the multi-year transformation program to reshape and reorganize the business with its space optimization plan, new store formats, and improvement programs generating greater efficiencies and starting to deliver tangible results. However, efficiencies and the benefits were more than offset by the reduction in profits in Hong Kong, principally in the Manning's business. Sales by Dairy Farm subsidiaries were 5% behind those of 2018. The underlying profit was $321 million, down 10% from last year as a result of the social unrest in Hong Kong in the second half of the year. In the Southeast Asia grocery retail business, sales reduced as a result of the sale of Rustan's in the Philippines and the ongoing execution of its space optimization plan in Malaysia and Indonesia.
This plan, however, together with the ongoing transformation and improvement programs, led to improved results for the business and strengthened fundamentals for future growth. For North Asia, while grocery retail sales were higher, overall profits fell due to investments in people and capabilities to enhance efficiency, as well as due to ongoing cost pressures. Sales in the convenience business increased in the year, particularly in the Chinese mainland, driven by new store sales growth and strong like-for-like sales as customers were attracted by enhancements to range and services. Profits declined, however, as a result of pre-opening costs for the expansion of the 7-Eleven store network in Guangdong, as a net total of over 200 new stores were opened in 2019. At Dairy Farm's health and beauty business, sales increased slightly with strong growth in Southeast Asia.
This was, however, offset by a significant reduction in Hong Kong's sales and operating profits resulting from the challenging market conditions, including a decrease in the number of visitors. The group has been addressing these challenging conditions by appropriate management of costs. IKEA's sales were higher in the year, but its operating profits fell due to lower operating margins as a result of the impact of increased cost of goods, as well as startup costs for new stores. The contribution for 50% owned Maxim's was lower than last year as the business was impacted by the ongoing social unrest in Hong Kong. Dairy Farm's investments in Yonghui and Robinson's delivered good returns. Mandarin Oriental's underlying profit fell significantly as a result of the closure of the Excelsior, the social unrest in Hong Kong, and the major renovation in Bangkok.
Earnings were supported, however, by the reopening of the London hotel following the fire in 2018 and the receipt of related insurance proceeds. The majority of the group's owned and partially owned properties reported better earnings. The remainder of the portfolio performed broadly in line with last year. Four new hotels were opened in 2019 in Dubai, in Doha, in Beijing, and on Lake Como, and the group continues to build its development pipeline. Moving now to Southeast Asia, Jardine Cycle & Carriage's $863 million in underlying profit was marginally higher than the prior year. Astra's $716 million overall contribution was relatively stable compared to the previous year. Direct Motor Interests' $63 million contribution to JC&C's underlying profit was, however, 11% lower than last year.
This resulted from reduced profits at Cycle & Carriage Singapore as higher car sales were offset by lower margins due to competitive pressures and a loss from Cycle & Carriage Bintang in Malaysia. In Indonesia, Tunas Ridean saw a stronger contribution from its automotive and consumer finance operations but lower profits from its rental business. The contribution from other strategic interests was 13% lower at $126 million. Other strategic interests now include THACO, consistent with its expanding investments in property and agriculture. THACO saw a lower contribution from its automotive business in a competitive market, and the contribution from its real estate business was significantly lower due to the slowdown in the property market. Siam City Cement's contribution was 16% higher than 2018, but the contribution from REE was lower. JC&C's investment in Vinamilk delivered a higher dividend income of $36 million.
Within Astra, there was a 1% fall in the contribution from the automotive division as a result of lower car sales volumes and increased manufacturing costs, partially offset by higher motorcycle sales volumes. The Indonesian wholesale car market declined in 2019, but Astra increased its market share from 51%- 52%. It also increased its share of the wholesale motorcycle market to 76%. The contribution from Astra's financial services division increased by 26% to $216 million, mainly due to an increase in amounts financed and an improvement in non-performing loans. Permata Bank saw a significant improvement in performance due to increased revenue and lower loan impairment values.
There was a small increase in the contribution from Astra's heavy equipment, mining, construction, and energy division, mainly driven by the strong performance of the new gold mining operation, Martabe , but partly offset by the impact of lower heavy equipment sales and a loss incurred in the general contracting business. Astra Agribusiness saw a significant fall in its contribution from last year due to low palm oil prices for much of the year. Prices are, however, currently higher than last year's average. The contribution from the infrastructure and logistics division increased as Astra began to see the benefits of its toll road investments and the completion of the 350 km of toll roads in the Trans Java network. That concludes my summary of the financial position and performance of the group. Thank you. I will now hand you over to Ben. Thank you.
Thank you, John. Looking forward, our strategic focus will continue to be on driving growth in our core businesses, in our core markets in both Greater China and Southeast Asia, and we will continue to invest for longer-term growth, leveraging our diversity of business segments and countries. Across the region, we see great potential in the rapidly rising disposable incomes and increasingly aspirational nature of Asia's consumers. As I said earlier, we also anticipate that a number of our businesses will face increasing changes, both in technology and consumer behaviors, set against an increasingly complex environment. In order to ensure that all of our businesses are well placed to benefit from these changes and deliver future growth, we've made it a priority to invest in and promote innovation, the development of our people, and the adoption of sustainable business practices.
Looking at each of these areas in a little more detail, our innovation agenda has progressed in the last year and has included the appointment of a new Group Director of Digital, who is leading the further development of our digital and innovation strategy. We will be driving our innovation agenda further forward in the coming years with two areas of particular focus. The first is modernizing our core business operations, looking at opportunities to leverage digital and new ways of working to drive a modern, efficient operating environment. The second is to use digital to generate additional revenue across all of our group businesses in both our consumer-facing and B2B operations. We're also focused on broadening and deepening capabilities across our businesses.
Over the past year, we've increased our investment in promoting lifelong learning, including rolling out new senior leadership programs and digital learning platforms, as well as enhancing the group's employer brand and recruiting a range of new skills and resources into the business. Jardine's also believes that it is essential for the group and our businesses to take a proactive approach to sustainability. We've established a board-level sustainability leadership council in 2019, and we've now adopted a group sustainability strategy with input from colleagues across the business, which will be progressively implemented in the coming years. In terms of prospects, the performance of the group's businesses in the year ahead will depend on the duration, geographic extent, and impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures taken to control it. For the longer term, we remain confident in the market fundamentals that drive Asia's growth.
We also remain confident that the group's strong balance sheet, liquidity, and clear strategic priorities will position Jardine Matheson well for strong long-term growth. With that, I'd like to conclude our presentation and take any questions you may have. Thank you very much.